$4m a day health service

Report reveals high cost to taxpayers, with emergency intakes on the up

TAXPAYERS are coughing up $4 million every day to run Gold Coast Health, with the emergency department at the University Hospital the busiest in the nation.

In the district’s annual report, Gold Coast Health board chair Ian Langdon refers to the challenging balancing act of not going into deficit.

The financial reporting shows the health service’s budget of $1.4 billion, backed by $1.3 billion in funding, had a surplus of $55,499 for 2017-18.

“The cost of running Gold Coast Health is now approximately $1 million every six hours,” Mr Langdon wrote.

He described the surplus as “an excellent result”.

The report highlights the pressure point for the health district with the city’s emergency departments seeing 171,159 patients, a 4.3 per cent increase on the previous year.

Nearly 110,000 of those patients turned up to the University Hospital across the 12month period.

The overall intake included almost 27,000 paediatric presentations with births totalling 5165, up from 3787 in 2012.

The report said the EDs had “performed well” reaching a 76 per cent target, just under the 80 per cent national requirement for all patients to be discharged, admitted or transferred to another facility within four hours of arrival.

On the patient-off-stretcher target of 90 per cent for ambulance arrivals, University Hospital recorded 70.2 per cent and Robina achieved 71.8 per cent.

The State Opposition described the EDs as being in crisis with almost half of patients in some instances not being attended on time.

Health Minister Steven Miles congratulated staff and when asked about future needs said the five-year-old University Hospital was continuing to meet demand.

“It’s also home to innovative models of care and medical research that will continue to expand,” he said. Health services were facing huge increase in demand a driven by population growth, an ageing population and the increasing prevalence of obesity and chronic disease like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, he added.

“Many of these conditions can be a by-product of lifestyle choices. That’s why we’re investing in a range of programs which encourage the community to live a healthier and more active lifestyle,” Mr Miles said.